Crew members and cargo being removed from the wreckage of the Admiral Benson shortly after the shipwreck.

The first day of summer vacation in 1930 was a real red-letter day for Washington High School students Stan Allyn and Wally Stenlake.

Of course, every high-school kid looks forward to that first day of freedom. But Stan and Wally had a special reason: They had a little excursion planned.

They were going to take their bicycles and ride from their homes in the Mount Tabor neighborhood of Portland out to Astoria, cross the river to the Washington side, go out on Peacock Spit at low tide, and spend the night on a shipwrecked passenger steamer, with breakers crashing around them when the tide ca...